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A federal magistrate denied a request by Tom Noe’s attorney to collect additional evidence for
claims that the rare-coin dealer did not receive a fair trial when he was convicted in 2006 of the
theft of millions of dollars from rare-coin funds he managed for the Ohio Bureau of Workers’
Compensation.

In a four-page opinion released this week, Magistrate Judge Kathleen Burke denied attorney
Rick Kerger’s petition for a case-management conference and the request to depose John Weglian,
chief of the special units division of the Lucas County Prosecutor’s Office and one of the
prosecutors during the 2006 trial.

The judge noted that because she must consider only the record made when deciding Noe’s
federal appeal, the search for more evidence would not be necessary.

“Because this court is precluded from considering evidence that was not before the state
courts when deciding petitioner’s claims that were adjudicated on the merits, discovery in this
case would be futile. So too would be a case-management conference to discuss discovery and an
evidentiary hearing,” she wrote.

Noe was convicted in 2006 of 29 charges of corruption, theft, money laundering, and of
tampering with records. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison and ordered to pay $13,747,000 in
restitution. He was found guilty by a jury after a weeks-long trial for the theft of millions of
dollars from two $25 million rare-coin funds he managed for the Ohio Bureau of Workers’
Compensation.

His conviction was upheld by the 6th District Court of Appeals in December, 2009, and on June
9, 2010, the Supreme Court of Ohio refused to grant a hearing of his appeal.

Mr. Kerger filed a writ of habeas corpus in June asking the federal court to vacate his
conviction and order a new trial. The case, which was assigned to Judge John Adams in Akron and
referred to the magistrate, remains pending in U.S. District Court in Toledo.

In November, Mr. Kerger filed a petition requesting the opportunity to gather additional
evidence, including the questioning of Mr. Weglian. The Ohio Attorney General’s Office, which is
handling the case, opposed the request.

The magistrate’s decision means no additional evidence will be collected, and instead, Noe’s
claims will be decided with the same information considered by the state courts.

“I accept the decision and respectfully disagree with it, and at the appropriate time, we may
ask the court of appeals to review it,” Mr. Kerger said.

The writ raises three claims for relief, including allegations against the trial court of
improper denial of the motion to change venue, improper allowance of the state’s experts, and
improper denial of the defendant’s experts.